Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Handy Book of Parish Law
The parish is the integer both of our political and our ecclesiastical systems. But although in modern times it has been equally important in relation to either, there is no doubt that, in the first instance, it bore exclusive reference to the latter system. The earliest territorial divisions recognized by the church were, unquestionably, dioceses. The subsequent divi sion of these into parishes was the result of the growth of population. When Christianity was struggling with surrounding heathenism, it is probable that the whole of the spiritual staff Of a diocese was attached to the person of the bishop, and that its members were de spatched by him, more as missionaries than as perma nent ministers, into the different portions of his dio cese. But as the numbers Of believers increased, it became necessary that resident clergymen should be always at hand to administer to them the consolations of religion and the natural result was, the division of the diocese into separate parishes, each with its own pastor. Moreover, the landlords, partly from motives of piety, and partly from a desire to strengthen the ties which bound their tenants to them, early began to B.
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